CHAP. IX. STATE OF SOCIETY. 209 



a monarchy or of a democracy. It would be 

 easy to show that the rate of interest, commonly 

 one per cent, per month, and frequently much 

 higher, must have drawn the greater part of the 

 property of the community into the hands of 

 the few, who were sufficiently dexterous to ob- 

 tain the command of armies and the government 

 of provinces, and thereby to amass a large share 

 of wealth. This high rate of the interest of 

 money, with the care taken to supply the neces- 

 saries of life to the idle and heedless citizens of 

 Rome, may account for the riches of a few indi- 

 viduals, and also serve to show that the mass of 

 gold and silver in the time of Augustus was not 

 so large as not to be dispersed or consumed in 

 the period which followed ; which, in the view 

 here taken, is extended to the falling to pieces 

 of the western empire, at the latter end of the 

 fifth century. 



We may, then, venture to conclude that whilst 

 the coined money in the Roman empire was 

 continually wearing away by friction, and no 

 supplies of the precious metals to replace it 

 were to be drawn from the exhausted or dilapi- 

 dated mines, there could be very little addition 

 made to its current money, by converting the 

 ornaments and utensils of the few wealthy fami- 

 lies into gold or silver coin. 



It has been supposed that in the present day, 

 in this country, the quantity of gold and silver 



VOL. I; P 



